Friday, 4 April 2014

When Israel supporters use the language of delegitimization.

When US Secretary of
State, John Kerry, said it was a “mistake” for Israel to demand
recognition as the Jewish State it shows how deeply the language of
delegitimization has been adopted by even the most ardent of Israel supporters.

Another example of this was New Jersey Governor, and
potential Republican presidential candidate, Chris Christie. In front of a
crowd of Jewish Republican fund-raisers in Los Vegas, hosted by Sheldon
Adelson, a close friend of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
Christie said, “I took a
helicopter ride from the occupied territories and felt personally how
extraordinary that was to understand the military risk that Israel faces every
day.”

When challenged
by the head of Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein, Christie
apologized saying his remark was not meant as a statement of policy. Didn't he
know that Israel has legitimate claims to this land?

The UJA-Federation
of New York decided this year to allow organizations such as New Israel Fund,
which promote the boycott of Israel, to march in the annual Israel Day Parade.
How misguided and wrong can that be? They permit groups that assist in the
delegimitization of Israel in an event that should be affirmatively pro-Israel.

We increasing see
well intentioned, powerful and influential people, who have the close attention
of the media, make misplaced statements that feed into the adoption of a
viewpoint that Israel has no legitimate right to be where it is.

The misuse of
language and deed is an indicator not only of the general public’s views, it
also displays how pro-Israel influential voices are chasing a narrative that is
driven by the Palestinian side of the conflict.

One perfect
example of terminology drift can be seen with the area once known as Judea
& Samaria becoming “disputed territory,” then the West Bank, and now
“illegally occupied Palestinian land.” Any staunch Israeli, or
dispassionate neutral, would argue that it is neither illegal, nor occupied,
and certainly not Palestinian land according to international law and binding
resolutions going back as far as the League of Nations Mandate of 1922. All this has not stopped the flow of
terminology becoming accepted language.

How did this
state of affairs come about? Well, it boils down to two major factors;

1) A highly
successful pro-Palestinian publicity campaign.

2) A dereliction
of duty by consecutive Israeli governments and prime ministers.

Some say the
demonization and delegitimization of Israel began at the infamous 2001 UN
Conference on Racism at Durban in South Africa which produced the hateful “Zionism
is Racism” slogan, and gave birth to the accusations of an apartheid
Israel. However, the refusal to accept Jewish rights to an independent state
was forcefully demonstrated back in 1947 when the Arab nations violently
rejected UN Resolution 181 which called for recognition of a Jewish state. They
unsuccessfully launched major wars against the nascent Jewish state which led
them in anger, following yet another defeat in 1967, to gather in Khartoum and
declare three “No’s” against Israel. No peace, no negotiations, no recognition.
This was reconfirmed by the Arab League as recently as March 25, 2014, when
Arab leaders again declared that they will never recognize Israel as the Jewish
state. So much for the Arab Peace Initiative!

But, to go back
in time, out of Egypt came Yasser Arafat to cloak himself in the mantle of
Palestine. Initially, he saw himself as the spearhead of the Pan-Arabic
aggression against Israel. As he said in a 1970 interview with Italian
journalist Arianna Palazzi, “The question of borders doesn't interest us.
Our nation is the Arabic nation. The PLO is fighting Israel in the name of
Pan-Arabism. What you call Jordan is nothing more than Palestine.”

This hatred of
Israel conglomerated into what is known as the Palestinian cause. By portraying
Israel as a colonialist, powerful, aggressive, oppressive, racist, occupier of
a poor, defenseless, weak, indigenous Palestinian people a picture is painted
that, to the impressionable, inevitably leads to a negative opinion of an
Israel accused of the worst examples of war crimes and human rights abuses, and
a sympathy for the weak Palestinians. That is the perception today.

It leads to the
ridiculous, but dangerous, situation where church leaders gather in Bethlehem
to accuse Israel of abuses, and they do this in a once-Christian town where
their co-religionists have been driven out and persecuted not only by the
non-Christian Palestinians who have taken over their homes and businesses, but
also by officials of the Palestinian Authority including Arafat himself who
confiscated the Greek Orthodox mission to make it his official Bethlehem
residence.

The Palestine
cause has become so “flavor of the month” that the British Methodists
have abandoned Wesleyan hymns, and the founding principles of their own faith,
that call for the return of the Jews to their homeland in Zion, in favor of
declaring it as Palestinian land.

When you see that
happen you know that the Palestinian PR machine has won the battle of public
opinion.

The seeds of delegitimization are planted when the official
voice of Israel is missing. Opposing
voices get their message over with clarity. Their message may be wrong, it may
be false, but told often enough, and loudly enough, it leaves people waiting to
hear a clear voice of reason from our side.

That voice is seldom heard. That voice has been missing. The
result of this silence has been to convince the undecided to side with the
voice they hear, and the result of that is all too plain for us to see. The
international community and public opinion is against us.

It doesn't matter whether the political position in Israel is
to surrender land or not. The starting point of both camps must be grounded in
our heritage and rights. What is critically important is publicly and
repeatedly to claim Israel’s legitimacy to the land, clearly elucidating
Israel’s legal precedents, of which we have many, for existing and for
sovereignty. Without this, we have no basis for honesty and no credibility in
the international community or with public opinion both at home and abroad. It
is from this certain and firm starting point that either side can then move
forward. Without it, we have no legitimacy anywhere.

Official voices have either been silent or waffling on this
vital issue. There are thousands of supportive voices that are broadcasting
strong pro-Israel messages but they are merely the choir. The lead singer has
been absent from the stage, or strikes a discordant note. This is not the way
to sell a hit record.

The Israeli government must get its act together and start to
sing out in clear clarion tones. The backing group of organizations and
individuals will take up the lyrics to amplify the convincing message of our
song, and drown out the opposing voice.

This, surely, is the only platform from which Israel can, and
must, claim any legitimacy from which to move forward. Without it, we have no
legitimacy anywhere, not in Judea & Samaria, the West Bank, or whatever you
call that place. And, once you have lost that you have no legitimacy anywhere
in what was once called Palestine.

And, when that happens, we may as well sneak away, like
thieves in the night.

Barry Shaw is the Special Consultant on Delegitimization
Issues to the Strategic Dialogue center at Netanya Academic College.